The invention relates to a ship, especially a ferry, having a bow door, which is formed by a part of the ship's hull in the bow region, which part can be upwardly tilted around a horizontally extending axis. The bow door is used to open the ship in the region of its stem, so that, in the so-called ro-ro traffic, vehicles which have driven onto the stern can leave the ship's hull in the longitudinal direction and without changing direction; naturally the entry and exit directions can be reversed.
The formation of the bow door from the entire ship's bow above the water line is known: the bow part separated from the remainder of the ship's hull by a more or less vertical section is swivelled upwardly (and forwards) around an axis, which extends parallel to the joint passing transversally from one side wall to the other. A ramp, for example, can be swivelled out through the bow opening formed in this manner so as to come to rest on a quay wall or similar.
It is clear that, in a relatively large (ferry) ship, the upward swivelling of the entire bow portion lying above the water line means that considerable weights have to be moved. This in turn requires correspondingly strong and expensive movement mechanisms and control systems. In addition, the upwardly tilted bow portion obstructs the view of the attendance crew over the entire ship's width during the approach to the berth i.e. when entering a ferry berth; on the other hand its relatively early opening is necessary, not least because of the bow door which also swivels out to the front. Therefore bow openings which consisted of two door wings, which--in the closed position forming the stem along their common edge--were swung out laterally from the side walls of the ship's hull above the water line and beneath the foredeck over a certain lateral length, have already been produced. The division of the bow opening into two door halves which are independent of one another, one of which is pivoted towards the starboard and the other of which is pivoted towards the port, has the disadvantage, not associated with the bow door discussed above, of lower stability, which necessitates corresponding measures in the locking mechanism in the closed state and also in the opening mechanism. However the fact that to open these bow doors very much smaller masses of the ship's hull have to be moved than in the case of the bow door previously described is advantageous.